Bike industry bosses are urging the Government to play fair with bikers in the Budget.

Bike industry bosses are urging the Government to play fair with bikers in the Budget.

The DVLA, which has never been particularly biker friendly, is currently reviewing the whole picture of road tax - and there are worries that many bikers will lose out in a big way.

While small capacity cars have benefited from road tax cuts in recent years, it now seems on the cards that bikes with even smaller engines will see a massive hike - hardly fair is it?

The strong rumour currently grinding from the mill is that all bikes above 600cc will be deemed leisure vehicles and made subject to a "supertax" rate.

It is also suggested that DVLA is toying with putting all machines - including 50cc mopeds, up to 400 cc in the same category, scrapping the current £15 a year moped tax which makes them such a desirable alternative commuter transport option.

Hiking this to £60 or thereabouts would hardly encourage people out of their cars, especially when the recent changes mean you can tax a Fiesta or something similar for just over £100.

"We want the Government to help people travel to work by motorcycle and the best way of doing that is to scrap vehicle excise duty on smaller bikes altogether," he said.

He also slammed the supertax plan for bigger bikes, making the obvious claim that a 1000c bike is still a better environmental option than a similar sized car.

Regular readers may remember the unmitigated slur cast on Teesside bikers in particular by the DVLA a couple of years ago where it reckoned, on little or no evidence, that we were largely a load of road tax dodgers.

Frankly if they put the tax on bikes through the roof it is hardly conducive to encouraging people to pay ... not that this column would ever condone breaking the law.

OTW says this is yet another case where individuals should get writing to their MP. Politicians have a "Letters" yardstick by which they measure public concern on any issue. A full mailbag and they do take notice.